Maxim Jakubowski, Paris Noir: Capital Crime Fiction (City Noir 2)

Paris Noir: Capital Crime Fiction

Maxim Jakubowski (Editor)

Serpent's Tail, Feb 2008

Like London before it (see LONDON NOIR) Paris is a great city for Moira's to occur and some of the eighteen contributors like Cara Black ('The Redhead?') know the dark side of the city with her Aimee Leduc tales. However, the problem is with the title as some of the entries are not classic Noirs like Michael Moorcock's paranormal sleuth Sexton Blake appearing in 'The Flaneur of Les Arcades de l'Opera'; a sleuth I enjoyed reading in his anthology (see THE METATEMPORAL DETECTIVE), but does not fit the theme. Thus purists might be a bit upset to find PARIS NOIR is 200-proof 'Capital Crime Fiction', but only 100-proof Noir. The stories are all new, fun to read with no clinkers and a few are Noir Excellence such as Romain Slocombe's "Guy Georges' Final Crime" confrontation between a serial killer and the next victim and the rotating perspective of 'The Lookout' by Marc Villard.

Harriet Klausner